Water

I've been pretty slack this week on posting images, but it's been hectic around here. Every time I think it's going to calm down, the work load just picks up again. It's hard to believe that I only have two week left of classes (although, my last exam is not until the 11th of nov.) I took this image outside of Makarora, on the South Island over spring break. I liked the reflection on the lake as well as the steam rising off of it. It also ties in nicely to a link I want to share with you. I check the blog http://artisticthings.com weekly, it has some pretty out there stuff on it, but I always find something on it that absolutely blows my mind. Today I went searching the blog and landed on a link to Elena Kalis Photography. Her skill and creativity astounds me, I cannot stop looking at her photographs. Anyway, I just had to show y'all the link.

Unfortunately, the slack in updates is going to continue until Wednesday, because I will be just outside of Brisbane for the weekend. My main mission: to hug a koala. I hope you enjoy the links and I apologize again for being so lazy with updating!

Rope And A Hard Place

While exploring the island on the Stray Bus, we took a day hike/climb on the Franz Joesph Glacier. Once fully equipped with crampons, we made our way up the glacier, zigzagging along. It was tons of fun and an awesome way to get a work out. The ice and surrounding mountains were beautiful... but we did get in a few situations. I can see why they don't allow this in North America, but they definitely should. Why play it safe when you can have fun?

As beautiful as New Zealand is, you can only find these landscapes in the States: Huffington Post. I feel so fortunate to have visited all but 3 of these parks (thank you Block Breaks!)

Mirror Image

Mirror Lake - can you guess where it got it's name?

I promise longer posts next week, but this week has been crazy! So much work to do... it's hard to believe I only have 3 weeks left of classes and then 2 weeks of exams. I can't wait for classes to be over, but I'm really no where near ready to leave yet.

Left Behind

Makarora

Please keep Samoa, Tonga, Indonesia, and Vietnam in your thoughts for today.

So Flash

Somewhere in the Golden Bay region.

The Good One

I took this image in Christchurch while we were waiting for the Stray bus to come pick us up on the start of our journey (for the 2nd week of spring break at least). It was the first time in my life I could say that I was happy to be in Christchurch and meant it (although every time I said it I shuddered at the thought of being back at that other Christ Church in my life). I didn't get to spend much time in the city, but I am hoping to go back with my parents and visit the areas surrounding it.

Cheers

The internet was out all day today and yesterday I went on a day trip back to the Coromandel Peninsula. Anyway, here is the photo for today. I am sad to say I don't know exactly where I took it. I just know that I took it out of the window of the Stray bus on our way from Makarora to Queenstown (closer to Queenstown) while on spring break.

Bogan

So, the last few posts have been named with New Zealand saying that have caught on with us Americans - or, at least we've tried to get to get in the habit of saying them. All I can say for boan though is to just look it up. I took this photo at Wharariki Beach (remember my other post here). In the photo is Ben again. I took this as the sun was setting and we were headed back to the car. You can see how rough the waters were that day, which made the whole expierence of Wharariki even more profound. We literally just sat and walked around the empty beach for 2 or 3 hours - losing track of time completely. With the elements extremely strong that day, everything seemed to be against us, but the beauty and isolation of the place kept us there. It was by far one of the most spectacular places I have visited to date. As Ben said, something about that day on that beach just made us understand a little bit better how the world works.

Dodgy

Oops, I forgot to update this morning. This is yet another image that I took through the car window on my IFSA-Butler adventure weekend (I promise we didn't spend all of our time in the car). More photos from my spring break are still to come!

Model Pose

On our way from Nelson to Christchurch, Ben and I stopped to spend a night in Kaikoura. I instantly fell in love with it (you'll read that statement a lot in the coming posts). Once we got there, we met up with two other friends, Lauren and Jill, and went to a seal colony to hang out and take photos. Then, Lauren, Jill, and I decided that we wanted to wake up to see the sunrise - one of the best decisions made during my break. We woke up the next morning - not so bright, but very early - and went back to the seal colony. I'm a skier in Colorado, which means I get to see my fair share of sunrises in the rocky mountains on winter mornings that I didn't think could compare with anything else. However, I was wrong. Not only did I get to see snow capped mountains turn to gold, I also got to expierence the waves crashing at their bases while seagulls and seals wondered why we were disturbing their peace. It sounds like a scene from some Disney princess movie, but it was ten times better than that. On our way out of the parking lot, we noticed a group of very large (to say the least) seals and had to stop to capture them on our cameras. This was one of them...

Click Here to read an inspirational blog. It is written by Lisa Ray, who has been one of my favorite actresses ever since I saw Water (you may remember my blog post about it: here). Most people who know me, know that I love actors and actresses that haven't quite made it big; because when an actor or actress's high-profile personality gets bigger than his or her talent, it's time for me to tune out. I no longer see the character, I just see whoever is playing them. However, Lisa Ray is different. I have now seen five of her films and I never notice her, the actress, I notice and connect to her characters - that is what I consider great acting. However, now I am paying attention to her for another reason: because she's not afraid to talk about what the rest of us are afraid bout: cancer. Every single person I know has been effected by it, one way or another, which is probably what makes it so difficult to talk about it. However, if you still can't talk about it, at least you can read about it on Lisa Ray's incredible blog.

Droplet

This is pretty much the ultimate New Zealand image. The silver fern is New Zealand's national emblem and one can see it literally everywhere. I took this photo while tramping in the Abel Tasman National Park after a bit of rain had come through. I have tried to get so many fern photographs, but not that many seem to turn out well, so I was very excited when I saw that this one did. Abel Tasman is a marvalous area, with more beaches than one can count and so much more. Ben and I went on a tramp over 12km one day in the park and we didn't even see a 3rd of it. More photos of the beattuiful landscape of the South Island to come, so keep coming back!

Check out my youtube page for two videos I uploaded from the break (one of bungy jumping, one of skydiving): http://www.youtube.com/crescentcompositions
Click Here for my facebook album (mainly photos of friends on the trip).

Lenses Can Distort

So, what is one to do when one is waiting in a car at a gas station for the driver to get back? Well, this one decided to take out her camera and look around the area through her lens. I snapped a few quick shots and this was one of them. It's nothing special, but I thought it would be more interesting than yet another landscape (of which you will get plenty more after my break).

I also decided to post this image because it was the closest image I could find that kind of, somehow, in my weird mind, reminded me from the film I saw last night. Before I tell you the film, let me first state that I am in love with films that mess with your head so much that you can't decide what is up/down or backwards/forwards or linear/circular or anything (I've been this way ever since I was introduced to the world of Requiem for a Dream [2000 - Darren Aronofsky]). That being said, I was destined to love Mulholland Dr. (2001 - David Lynch). Mulholland Dr. takes messing with its audience's head to a whole new level, so much so there is actually a whole website dedicated to the various theories about how to interpret the film. I have heard about this film for years - everyone loves it, or at least understands its greatness, but no one understands it. I have always wanted to watch it, but my parents kept telling me that they had tried to watch it 6 or 7 times and could never stay awake, so I avoided renting it for their sakes. However, this time around I wanted to watch Sunset Blvd (1950 - Billy Wilder), but itunes did not have it, so I decided to watch another L.A. movie and Mulholland Dr. came to mind. I absolutely loved it! I couldn't understand it anymore than anyone else, but it was so beautiful (the transitions alone were some of the best I have ever seen) and just a well made movie - and it will scare/freak the crap out of you. It's amazing. Oddly enough, now that I have been raving about it to my parents over Skype, they claim that they have seen it 5 or 6 times and loved it each time... I don't know which version to believe, especially after seeing the film itself.

If you were born in September (or any other month of the year...that should be everyone), click here and get inspired (if this doesn't do it, I don't know what will).

Watch Out For ... What?

Sadly, the weather did not break and there has been a monsoon outside of my window for the better part of the day. That means no night photography to share, unfortunately. However, I do have a uniquely Kiwi image to share with you today (pun majorly intended). The driver of the bus on my ski trip last weekend said that the area has a comparatively healthy kiwi bird population - then he said to look for signs on the side of the road. As you can probably guess, I got out my camera hoping to get a shot of one of the signs and this is it.

Do you have a September birthday? Click Here & Watch.
Also, August 19th, 2009 is World Humanitarian Day

Mirror

Tired of landscapes yet? This is another "stop the car!" image taken on the way from Rotorua to the Waitomo caves.

Sand Dunes!

This is another photograph from my road trip home. This was taken in the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Although it's not well known outside of Colorado, it should be. These are not the sand dunes you see at the beach, these dunes are huge and at the base of a beautiful mountain range with a beautiful (yet chilly) river wrapping around them. The hike up to the top of the dunes is not an easy one (neither is the hike down), but the view is definitely worth it. I took this shot on our hike up to the top.